


You haven’t even touched your food. What’s going on?

by flickerbyniall



Series: Prompts [22]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 12:00:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19425553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flickerbyniall/pseuds/flickerbyniall
Summary: They're together again, but this time around, something is bothering Harry.





	You haven’t even touched your food. What’s going on?

“You haven’t even touched your food. What’s going on?”

Harry has been holding his fork and wiggling it around his plate since they sat down at the table half an hour ago. The food hasn’t been eating but it has been misplaced, the mashed potatoes are mixed with the green beans, the carrots are even tinier pieces than the regular finger size slices Harry usually make, and the steak is long forgotten.

Niall has noticed since they sat down but decided to give him a little time to talk, so he’s been the one conducting the conversation, he’s been talking about the shows he’s planning to go, how’s writing in the studio lately, how hilarious Lewis Capaldi’s last Instagram story was, he even talks about that documentary he watched in Netflix a couple of weeks ago but he gets no response from Harry and his silence is freaking him out a bit. What if he changed his mind about this second chance they gave to each other already? What if he is already regretting the last three nights they’ve been spending together? What if he doesn’t love Niall anymore?

So that’s the reason why he can’t keep pretending he doesn’t see something is off with Harry, especially when he’s not even trying anymore. At first, he cared enough to act like he was listening, nodding time to time, mumbling answers and smiling when Niall laughed but now is radio silence.

“What? Nothing.” He says, looking surprised.

“Cut the bullshit. You’ve been acting weird since last night when we came home.” And that’s the truth but Niall didn’t give it much of a thought when they got to bed, or this morning when Harry served burned bacon and the eggs for breakfast.

Harry takes a long breath looking up at the ceiling before, _finally_ , dropping the fork on his plate.

“Why didn’t you tell me your father hates me now?” he says, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at Niall directly in his eyes.

“What?” Niall whispers back, as just the thought of it was delusional. Bobby loves Harry, he knows that. Everyone knows that.

The three of them went to a pub last night, it wasn’t exactly planned but Bobby was in London with his girlfriend and Niall wanted to see him for father’s day, so he called him to meet for a couple of beers. That was what he told Harry over lunch and he kind of invited himself for the evening, apparently, he missed the old man a lot. It was too soon but it’s different when it comes to the two of them, they are not just ex-lovers, they’re friends and Bobby is always asking about Harry and how’s he doing, so it seemed like a good idea.

“He _hates_ me, Niall,” Harry says, broken voice and teary eyes. And Niall’s mind stops running for a second because his hurt starts hurting, Harry is actually about to cry.

“What are you even talking about?” He gets closer to him and holds his hand. “We were talking the whole night, he even laughed at that stupid joke of yours about the cow.”

Harry pouts for a second and rubs his fists over his eyes, “the second you left to the restroom, his smile dropped off his face and he started watching the game in the screens, ignoring me completely.”

Niall frowns. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure!” He yells, making Niall back up a little. “I felt like I was suffocating and I understand- I mean, I broke your heart but I was hurting too and-”

“Stop, stop.” Niall places both hands over Harry’s shoulders, trying to calm him down and keep him from rambling around. “We talked about that and we agreed to not come back to it.” Harry nods but he can’t look at Niall’s eyes when he does. “…And regarding Bobby, maybe he was having a bad day, or he was tired. I don’t think he meant to be rude to you.” Niall says but Harry is already shaking his head, refusing to accept any of the previous possible explanations.

Harry’s nose is stuffy so he rubs it and makes it even redder than it was five seconds ago, he’s trying not to cry and Niall asks himself if he missed something last night, if he didn’t see the exact moment after he came back from the toilets to Harry looking a little uncomfortable and Bobby telling them something Theo did last week that left him speechless. Maybe he was too distracted by the story or he was just happy of having Harry back, for this new chance they had on their hands, maybe he was too excited with the idea of this turning into a regular thing again: Sundays with Harry and his dad.

So no, he didn’t see or feel anything different, he didn’t catch a fake smile coming from his father or the hurt in Harry’s eyes as he finished his beer, or maybe he did and he let himself think it was the fact he only drinks beer when Bobby is around, otherwise he wouldn’t even think about it.

“Okay…” he says slowly, “What did he say?” Niall asks, looking at Harry, trying to understand the situation but he laughs.

“Nothing.” He says, looking at the couch in front of them. “He didn’t even look at me.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Niall says shrugging and crossing his arms over his chest.

“No!” Harry jumps from his seat, finally looking at him. “Don’t! I don’t want him to hate me more.”

“If this is what’s going on, I have some blame too,” Niall stands up from his chair, they promised they wouldn’t talk about it again, it was too hurtful but apparently, they haven’t figure everything yet, “I called him the last time we… split, it wasn’t my best moment.”

He remembers that night almost five years ago, before going to the Asian trip. He was so young and even if they weren’t in a real relationship, it was real, Niall was in love and after that phone call and those pictures, he was broken and drunk when he called his dad, asking him how did it felt when mom left him, how he got over it. And he listened and asked Niall to come home but he didn’t want his father to see him like that so he decided to hide all over the world and he worked in his music until he healed, until he was ready to see more clearly and accept that it wasn’t entirely Harry’s fault, that he had a lot to do with it. But he didn’t call Bobby when he figured it out, he didn’t call him to tell him about the times Harry and he slept together over those five years until they couldn’t keep hurting each other anymore without wanting _more_.

They missed each other, they craved each other and they needed each other. So after all the bullshit and the pain and the lies, they finally grew to become the men they are today, two men that love each other and they want make it work, they want some kind of commitment so they can protect themselves. Bobby just didn’t know that Niall wasn’t a heartbroken kid anymore, he was a grown ass man that knows what he’s doing, he knows what he’s risking too.

“Hey,” he smiles at Harry, taking his chip up to look at his eyes. “I love you.” Harry nods and a tear falls down. “Bobby knows that and _you_ know he would never hate you, maybe he’s a bit mad but it doesn’t matter, we’re gonna make this work.”

Harry nods again but this time, he’s smiling.


End file.
